


Our Dumb Friends

by TheAfterglow



Series: Are We Not More? [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - Historical, Deleted Scenes, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Phux, Drabble Collection, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23565928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAfterglow/pseuds/TheAfterglow
Summary: This is a short series of Phux drabbles inspired by the Reylo Fanfic BookClub's fic-of-the-week readalong ofIf Not Us.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Phasma, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Are We Not More? [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549903
Comments: 28
Kudos: 30





	1. Dinner Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter occurs in early-mid May 1964 between the first and second segments of [INU Chapter 6 - On the Road](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083872/chapters/33264357).

Hux shut the door gently behind Rey and turned back to the room with his hand still on the knob. 

Phasma had risen from the table and hummed under her breath as she cleared the dishes, still sipping at the dregs of her third martini. A jazz record spooled itself out in the stereo cabinet and he reached to shut if off before moving to help clear the table. 

“Well,” he said, handing her a casserole dish through the passthrough. 

“Well,” she repeated as she pulled on her rubber gloves to scrub the bits of browned potato and cream of mushroom soup from the edges. “I like her.”

He was silent for a moment as he delivered their plates and silverware to Phas, considering. Their newest campaign staffer had joined them for dinner and he was hard pressed to find fault with her. The evening had passed too quickly and Rey had begged off another drink, citing an early meeting in the morning. 

“So do I,” he admitted. 

“She seems very smart,” Phas went on unprompted. “Like she can hold her own.”

Hux moved into the kitchen next to her and assumed his place with the dish towel draped over his hand. He merely nodded and set to drying, the yellow-and-green checked terry cloth becoming damp as he swiped the water from the dishes. 

“What does Ben think?” Phasma asked. 

Hux snorted at this. “Silent treatment so far. Even though this was his doing.” 

“Oh, God,” Phas muttered. “We should’ve invited them both. Can you imagine?” 

He couldn’t. He pictured them sat round their dining table, Ben sulking silently while Rey became more and more animated in an attempt to fill the dead air. He could see her looking back and forth between himself and Phasma as if watching a tennis match, glancing at Ben shyly but mostly avoiding eye contact. The funniest thought occurred to him as he imagined it. He dried the casserole dish and replaced it in the cabinet before Phasma noticed his expression. 

“What?” 

“What if they fall in love?” He grinned at Phasma, who immediately rolled her eyes. 

“Please,” Phasma giggled. “She deserves someone better.”

Hux shrugged off her criticism of his friend and current boss. Phasma loved to tease Ben, a quality Hux found endearing, deserved, and irritating all at once for the friction it caused between the men. 

They stood side-by-side in front of their bathroom mirror a half hour later, Phasma under a mask of cold cream when the question occurred to him. He spoke around the toothbrush in his mouth. 

“Who  _ do _ you see Ben with?” 

Phasma soaked a washcloth under the faucet and began wiping her face clean before she answered. 

“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “He’s so particular. Has he ever been in love, do you think?”

He spit a blob of toothpaste in the sink and ran the water. 

“Not that I know of. He’s always been so… “ He broke off. 

“Superior?” Phasma rinsed her washcloth and arched one perfect eyebrow at him. “Arrogant? I can go on, or--”

“That’ll do,” he hushed her with a kiss. “Lonely. He’s lonely.” 

“Mmmmmm,” Phasma hummed, looking down at his lips before making eye contact. “Poor Ben.” 


	2. Home Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after Phux arrive home from the beach holiday at the Skywalker-Solo Hamptons estate (INU Chapters 8-10).

“That was _glorious_ ,” Phasma declared as she flopped onto their bed. “Leia needs to adopt me as her daughter. She and Han could use another child, don’t you think? Has Ben ever wanted a sibling?”

She smoothed her hand over the geometric pattern of the comforter cover, heart full from a weekend of friends and laughter. It was too bad Rey had decided to leave early, though she’d been acting strangely since the eve of their arrival and Phasma supposed she felt embarrassed at how much she’d drunk at the party. 

No one had abstained, but Rey and Finn had certainly indulged more than some of the guests. 

Armitage stood in his boxers on tiptoes, stowing their suitcase on the top shelf of the closet once more. His fingertips were just a hair too short to give it the final shove it needed to reach its resting place. 

“Do you need a tall person,” she teased. She was only an inch taller than him but never let go a chance to lord it over him. 

“I’ve…. almost…. got it!” His voice sounded strained. A round cardboard hat box threatened to fall now as the suitcase slid into place. 

She rose in a smooth motion and reached over his shoulder to hold the box steady as he hopped to give the suitcase a last shove.

“I had that,” Armitage turned suddenly and tackled her backwards onto the bed. “And I think Ben’s an only child, through and through.” 

“Did he enjoy himself?” 

His gaze shifted away from her eyes, down at her breasts and Phasma pushed him away by the shoulders. The delicate, freckled skin was already beginning to peel and she spied a few spots that looked like they might blister.

“You’re hiding something,” she said, eyes narrowing at him. “And you need to wear sunscreen. Your ancestors never saw sun! Does this hurt? It looks awful!”

“No, and no,” Armitage raised his eyes again. “Do you think Rey had a good time?”

Now it was her turn to look away. “I think she had a bit too good of a time.” 

His hand came up and traced the line of her cheek, turning her face back towards him. She studied his profile and found it softer now with exhaustion. How could tomorrow already be Monday again? The long weekend had flown by. 

“Do you think--” She started, then broke off. She was so sure Rey had been lying to her, and then there was the box she’d come across in the younger woman’s things.

“I think _you’re_ hiding something,” Hux said softly, his whiskers grazing her throat. “What did Rey tell you?”

She swatted at his chest playfully, not intending to make him stop. “I think she has a crush on Finn.”

His lips stilled for a split second before continuing down the line of her throat to her collarbone. “You think so?” It tickled as he murmured this against her skin. 

“I mean, she denied it of course,” she went on, ruffling her fingers through his hair behind his head. “But you saw them together, right? Dancing like that? I think there’s something going on. It’s no wonder Ben was staring at them--everyone was.”

Hux raised his head to gaze lazily at her as his fingers worked the tie on her negligee loose. 

“I think they’re just friends,” he replied. 

“And you’re hiding something,” she whispered. 

He grasped her free hand and moved it down his body until it came to rest on his hard-on through his undershorts. 

“You’re right,” he whispered. “And I don’t want to hide it any more.”


	3. A Brief Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after Phasma & Rey's conversation in [INU Chapter 15](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083872/chapters/35103662), after the funeral but before the debate. Phasma & Rey get lunch and Rey admits she and Ben kissed at the beach and that things have.... progressed since.
> 
> Alternate title: Phasma Ships It. LOL

The apartment was dark and relatively cool when she arrived home, hours before she expected Hux. She hung her suit in the closet and opted for a caftan that covered her to her knees. She’d made this one herself on her portable sewing machine of a batik print she’d bought at an outdoor market the previous summer. Armitage hated it: a wild swirl of turquoise, purple and yellow that looked, as he put it, _like a bush woman’s dress_. 

That alone was enough reason to love it. Besides, it was airy and it was too damn hot to bother with real clothes. 

She fixed a stiff gin and tonic and lay on the couch, letting the fan blow the stale air over her. 

“Brief,” she muttered to herself. “What kind of a word is _brief_ for a kiss?”

Her head buzzed with excitement as she replayed the conversation she’d had with their young friend on the way back from lunch. It was rare Rey got away from the office these days, and she’d been scarce outside work even before the funeral. Once the nomination was secured, the campaign kicked into a high gear that had gone all pear-shaped with Leia’s passing.

Phasma took a long drag on the icy booze and rested her head back. 

_Well then_. She had been wrong. Had read the situation wrong altogether. 

She replayed their weekend at the beach now like rewatching a whodunnit film noir, knowing the ending and looking for the clues. 

Obviously, Rey felt nervous around Ben and had too much to drink. That was plain to see. 

When she had bolted back to the house after sunbathing? Perhaps she hoped to run into Ben after his shower from tennis and make use of the condoms Phasma had found in her bag while hunting for Rey’s suit. 

And Ben… well, he was harder to read, but she now had a different take altogether on the expression he’d worn at the breakfast table the morning he’d driven Rey to the train station. She had assumed simple exhaustion as the cause of his moody silence, but now? 

Phasma hummed to herself as she took a deep swig of her G & T, picturing what might have happened at the train station. 

If she knew Ben _at all_ , and she thought she did, she was sure he made some inappropriate remark to Rey. Whether it was denying his feelings or accusing her of having them, he had stuck his foot in his mouth. And he’d probably talked all around the issue, the way men always did when they thought the woman in question couldn’t handle the topic, then said some bone-headed thing about propriety and social class that his family were so hung up on. Everyone in the East was, especially around the Beltway.

“Brief my ass,” Phasma said out loud. 

She pictured Rey knocking on Ben’s door, him opening it and pulling her inside before anyone could see them. In her mind’s eye, he pinned her to the wood by her shoulders and gave her what they both wanted-- a kiss that had been building up for four months, all teeth and tongues and gasping for breath, one that left them panting and moaning into each others’ mouths. 

Just then she heard a key in the lock. 

Armitage stepped through the door a moment later, Ray-Bans still on and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. 

“You’re home early,” he remarked mildly, moving his glasses to sit atop his flame-red hair. He took in her outfit and general state before asking, “Everything okay?”

“Arrrrrrrmie!” She sat up and trilled in her best Ricky Ricardo voice. “You got some splainin’ to do!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Easter/Passover! This is your adult Easter basket!


	4. Meatloaf and Machinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during INU Chapter 20 - The Ties That Bind.

The train from Baltimore to DC was nearly empty at this hour, allowing them to stretch out across from one another without folding their long legs.

“What’s Phasma making for dinner?” His friend asked this without making eye contact. Ben stared out the window at the darkness, lit only from overhead by the small fluorescent lights above each bank of seats. 

“Stewed porgs au vin,” Hux replied. They’d made up the name as boys for the seabirds that strayed too far inland and made their homes in the retention pond at prep school, a portmanteau of  _ poor _ and some obscure bird name they’d found in an ornithology text in the school’s library. He recalled the oversized book was so old it had marbled paper in its end pages and the binding’s stitching was coming loose to the point where they’d relinquished it to the elderly school librarian, a man who wore exclusively sweater vests and reading glasses on a chain around his neck.

“Sounds good.”

Ben hadn’t heard his joke at all, and Hux studied him carefully under the pretense of reading the evening edition of the Post. Bags had formed beneath Ben’s eyes, a sure sign of his insomnia flaring up. He blinked wearily and Hux knew it had been too much: the campaign, Leia, losing Rey, the bad press over Anakin. 

He, on the other hand, buzzed with an excitement he’d not felt for a solid three months, not since the convention. It was all he could do not to blurt out his news to every last sleepy commuter on this train, Ben included, shake them from their tired dozing. 

They reached home at a quarter to nine and Ben went straight for the bar cart as he followed Phas into the kitchen.

“It’s about time,” she said in a salty tone, but giggled the moment he slid his hands beneath her ridiculous, frilly apron that she only wore when she was cooking something that reminded her of home. He caressed her hips beneath it, pulling them back to meet his as he surveyed the stove.

A lump of meatloaf sat in a roast pan warming on the back of the oven under a blanket of bright red tomato sauce. His mouth watered as he imagined the sweet-sour taste. Phasma had told him the recipe, some disgusting concoction of ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, but he wasn’t sure he believed this witch’s brew could taste like heaven.

“Don’t be mad,” he murmured into her neck, relishing the smell of her perfume. It had a dark, smokey note unlike most women’s perfumes he’d smelled, almost like something from a man’s cologne. “But I need to make a quick phone call. Can you entertain the Dark Lord for a few minutes?”

Phas stirred the glazed carrots simmering in a pot before answering. “Only if you make it up to me later. Is he in a mood?”

Hux squeezed her tight to him now and a high-pitched giggle escaped her as he whispered, “You won’t be able to walk when I’m done with you.”

With that he retreated into their second bedroom, a joke of a room they’d designated as an office. He sank into the decrepit chair that Phas had salvaged from university requisition when the student union had been redone. The mechanism on the small file cabinet complained when he opened the top drawer to its extent to retrieve the folder he’d stashed at the back. 

Hux stared at it for a moment. It was a pristine carbon copy of the one he’d thrown at Ben a few weeks before. This one was… He felt a small pang of guilt as he glanced up at the framed Polaroid of Phas with Rey in front of the Washington monument. Phasma still didn’t know the extent to which they’d had her young friend investigated, nor did she know about the folder hiding in the back of the drawer. They shared the office, but she no more snooped in his desk than he messed with her sewing station. 

The folder had a list of staff numbers stapled inside it, and he scanned down the column to find her name. 

It rang four times before she answered.

“Armitage,” her tone was flat when he announced himself. “This is a surprise.”

“Sorry for the late call,” he replied smoothly. “I was wondering if you might be available to meet soon. I have some… news you might find interesting.” 

He emerged from the office to find Phasma seated beside Ben on the couch. Both looked as if they had just come from a funeral. 

“Who died in here?!” He exclaimed. “I’m starving!”

Ben eyed him suspiciously. “You’re awfully chipper.”

Hux allowed himself to smile now, a real smile that reached his eyes. “You will be too once you see Phas’s meatloaf.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for everyone who participated in the Reylo Fanfic Book Club's read of If Not Us! It was a blast to hear all your thoughts. This is for you!


End file.
